$25 per class or 4 classes for $80All necessary materials available for purchase there

The format is that of an open studio, where the instructor helps attendees of all levels bring a project of their own creation into being through needle felting.Never needle felted before? I'll show you how!Want to make a particular thing, and you have a reference picture/drawing? That's great let's do it!-=~* SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY *~=-

If you plan on attending, PLEASE REGISTER by calling the number on this page! www.hillcountryweavers.com/mai…I don't actually live in Austin, so I don't go if no one has confirmed.

Because commissions nearly drove me to the brink of insanity, I have changed the way things work here.

From now on, instead of keeping a long and intimidating list of people who want axolotls and bats and contacting them one by one as I make them while my shop remains empty and abandoned-looking, my methodology will be this:

I'll be making "MADE TO ORDER" listings in my Etsy shop periodically, based on the materials and time that I have. This will cut down waiting time for you, my dear customer, and will keep me from going mad with bat bits all over the house. They'll also, ideally, keep my shop nice and stocked and give me time to work on new and exciting things, like the tamandua. There are many things I want to work on: peacock spider, fossa, maned wolf, binturong, etc. And I will never get to make any of these things if I spend all my time on axolotls. So, this is a win-win situation for everyone!

IF you want a cretur that is not a thing I've made before, like, say, a sloth: contact me, and we will discuss it. I am much more receptive to a new and exciting challenge than repetition, and unless it is something that I really don't think I can make with my skills as they are, I'll most probably say yes!

Here's the shop! Right now, there's a tamandua, an axolotl, and a Honduran white bat brooch up for made-to-order-ness. There is also an anemone all gussied up and ready to go out with you, if you'll have it.

Watch me poke some wool and also myself, often. Fun times! I'm currently working on a big alebrije with wings, which will be in the Plush You! show at Schmancy this October. Drop by anytime and see how far along I am!

I can't say that the status of commissions has changed, really; they are technically still closed until about July, as I catch up with the backlog. The good news is I am no longer stuck on one huge order and am making relatively rapid progress! But the experience has led me to change the rules a little bit:

Only one cretur per order. This is so I don't leave other people waiting for a long time. I think it's more fair this way. You can absolutely place more than one order, but between your first and second order I will fulfill two of other people's orders.

OK! That's not too complicated.

And now, to put some structure to bat pricing, I've made this simple list:

IF I HAVE ALREADY GIVEN YOU A DEFINITE PRICE QUOTE, THIS CHART WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR PRICE. In the unlikely event that it actually makes your bat cheaper, let me know and I will price it accordingly. Most probably, though, I've lowballed it because I tend to underestimate the time these things will take, even after having made so many of them, heh.

I'm still contacting people according to my waiting list and I am currently working on three bat brooches and a tapir, and all this practice is making me a little faster!

One of my commissions has exploded into many commissions for one person, so while I'm making several pieces it still technically counts as a single commission. And then, of course, there's all the other ones! Long story short, I'm pretty much fully booked until like May, and I am wary of taking on more commissions to fill the rest of my calendar because I'd like to have some time to work on things that I can put in my store. It's woefully empty right now, and it makes me sad.

So, everyone to whom I've already talked about commissions; the estimated date I gave you may end up being a week or two off, but I will still get to you and you will definitely have your cretur. Everyone else: I'm sorry, but I have to close commissions for now. Keep an eye on the store (I think there's an RSS you can subscribe to), there will be more stock in it soon. Things you won't have to wait for, that you can just buy and have within a few days! Wow! Novel!

Spherecreturs are still fair game, though, because those take me only a day to make. And they are only $20, unless you ask for something really crazy.

I'm just posting to let you all know that I'm catching up on orders and I'll soon be notifying some of you about commission availability!

HOW COMMISSIONS WORK:When I contact you, I'll ask you for what you want and then I'll give you an estimate based on your description. After that you can choose whether to go forward with it or not; if you decide the price is acceptable, I will give you my paypal address and begin working on your piece upon receipt of payment. I will keep you updated and send you progress reports, and will notify you immediately when I send it out. And then you will have your very own cretur to love!

Note that you can always always request spherepigs, at any point in time. They are always $20 and they always take a week to get made and sent to you, regardless of how busy I am. That is how much I love you.

I just went out and got myself a fancy webcam, and I'm thinking that as soon as I figure out this livestream thingamajig I'm going to do just that. I'm banking on the idea that if there are people watching me I'm less likely to get distracted from my work and wander off into forums or blogs or something like that.

So, probably in about an hour or two, I'll update this post with a link. Hope to see you soooon~

edit2: WELL THAT WAS SUPER FUN YOU GUYS! Maybe another one in a couple of weeks! Thanks for coming!

The pipistrelle brooch was made a Daily Deviation today! Zomg! THANK YOU SO MUCH, especially wyrmaster and MyntKat, yaaaaaaaaay

I've been reading and answering all your comments (they have brightened my day considerably! I'm talking blinding light kind of brightening), and I've noticed some questions that get asked frequently. So in an effort to give you detailed answers without much repetitiveness, I'm going to compile them here for your convenience:

The average price for a commissioned animal, depending on the level of detail, is about $45. This doesn't mean I can do any commission for $45. Please talk to me first and depending on what you are requesting I will give you an estimate.

But you've caught me at sort of a bad time, DA! All my bats and axolotls and stuff have sold except for the alebrijes, some old hyenas, and ->CUSTOM SPHEREPIGS<-(get some of these!). And I already have a long list of commissions that I'm trying to churn out before Christmas, so I am full up, commission-wise, until about February.

If you're not in a horrible hurry and would like me to contact you when I free up a commission slot, contact me and let me know! I will not forget you. I promise. However, if you ARE in a horrible hurry and you simply MUST have something that is not very complicated/detailed, contact me. We may be able to work something out!

WHAT IS NEEDLEFELTING?

Needlefelting is a sculptural process that basically consists of poking wool into shape with a specially barbed felting needle. Doing this repeatedly makes the scaly fibers in the wool lock together. It takes approximately a billion trillion wool-pokes and ~6 bloody finger pokes to make a cretur. Here is a super fast time lapse video of Laurie of Woolpets needlefelting a bunny: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0ycwV…

So, the fair went pretty well. It definitely interested me in doing this sort of thing more often, maybe further north. I'm keeping an eye out for opportunities.

Commissions are still closed, super closed! I have a waiting list of people who want to be informed of when they open again, which I'm counting as commissions as well, so I'm pretty much full up until February. This makes me SO HAPPY. I'm poking away at some Due Before Christmas stuff right now, but taking it a lot easier than last month to give my wrist and elbow a bit of a break. Thanks to all of you who expressed concern before, I'm fine.

I've been working so much lately to prepare for the Dia de los Craftos fair on the 30th. I have 3 zombie heads, 1 large skull, and eight half-finished things. The half-finished things are what kill me... their unfinished status keeps me from feeling any kind of satisfaction from their existence.

ANYWAY.

Commissions are off right now, completely off, I am dying. Custom spherepigs are still doable because I've got those down to a science, but everything else is impossible until November.

First of all - reminder that the chevrotain is on sale for only one more day (today), and will then go back to being $50. It's cheap right now, go git it!

Second - I've decided to extend the spherepig commission time to November. That means you can design and own your own spherewhatever for $20 during all of October. Hooray!

Third - October is going to be heavy on the bats, because it seems like a very bat-appropriate month. The bats will most likely not be as detailed as the other one I made because I intend to make a lot of them, but that also means they'll be cheaper, so yay!

COMMISSION STATUS: Currently 6 custom creturs in the queue, so commissions are closed for now if you're in a hurry. If you're not in a hurry and don't mind waiting 3 or 4 weeks, by all means feel free to contact me about it.

For the month of September (and maybe also later, donno!) I'm offering custom-made, customer-designed spherepigs for $20!

WHAT IS A SPHEREPIG?It is a felted wool sphere with a piggy nose, and may have eyes, wings, hair, legs, etc etc. Here is an example of one: fav.me/d2xmjbeand here is an example of a doable variation: fav.me/d2yc4el

Size - Anywhere between an inch and a half and 3 inches in circumference.

Eyes - Large or small, solid color or over white, whatever color you like from the ones listed above, whatever distance from each other.

Extras - Legs, wings, a tail, a mohawk, a curl of hair, whatever you can think of!

Then, send me a note with your request. I'll let you know if it's doable, you paypal me $20 and give me a mailing address, and within a week your spherical swine will be on its way to you!OR you can buy it through my Etsy page: creturfetur.etsy.com